I had a day off today, a day to get out into the Peaks to absorb the sights, sounds and feel of the different areas that I visited, taking photos along the way and making notes on ideas for new work. Today was an amazing day to be in the Peaks, it was sunny with a bit of cloud but with a haze that lingered in the valleys and horizons, smudging and smearing the landscape, obfuscating the land creating illusions and interesting effects. The camera failed to do justice to the conditions, it didn't have the sensitivity and perception of human eyes unable to capture the nuances of light and shadow and colour, these have been drawn to memory, scribbled on notes and mentally toyed with for future paintings. A good day at the office!
Today I've been drawn to contemplate the rural landscape and how it relates to a modern world full of technology, with the frantic hustle and bustle of life and the problems and pleasures that we deal with daily. Gone are the days when the countryside was an adventure into the unknown, let's face it we've pretty much mapped the World and within seconds you can call up a satellite image and gps track yourself within 6ft. To many the romanticism of roaming the landscape has long past, man/woman against nature holds little interest when compared against TV and film where experiences and imagination can surpass anything that reality has to offer, whats more this can be achieved in the comfort of your own home or the local cinema and in relative safety.
So why is the rural landscape just as popular as ever, maybe more so. What does it have to offer the modern visitor? Escapism is one answer, people work hard and long hours, modern life is stressful, full of stuff to deal with, leisure time is limited and at home it is very difficult to switch off and avoid all this stuff but going out into the countryside strips this all away for a brief period, it is an attack on your senses, sights, smells, sounds the whole feel of it anathema to the stresses of modern life. Another aspect I have experienced out in the landscape is its ability to ground me as a person and put myself in perspective with the World around me. I find the World sometimes feels very small, information is at my fingertips within seconds, I see the important and prominent people and events Around the world on my Tv, I sometimes feel I know these people, feel I've experienced these events, the world can become very narrow, it's me, my family and friends and people in the public eye, it's very easy to lose track of the billions of other people in the World, the people I don't know, who's lives don't directly touch mine. Too easy to become disassociated from these people, too easy to ignore them and far too easy to think they don't matter. Today I sat high on a gritstone edge overlooking the valleys and distant hills, taking in the sheer scope of a 360 degree vista, aware of the vastness of open space around me, aware of my tiny little place in that landscape, in turn making me aware of that landscapes tiny little place in the rest of the world. Around me crawled hundreds, maybe thousands of ants in a square metre of land, so how many ants in the visible landscape around me? It's the same feeling when looking at stars, it's mind blowing and almost unfathomable but it is very grounding and it's one of the reasons I choose to paint landscapes, rural and urban, they have a way of capturing an essence of the experience of being there, of thoughts made and life pondered, vital to our mental health and sanity.
I'm on holiday for a week now, off to Somerset with my beautiful children so there won't be any posts for a while!
|
Archives
March 2015
Categories |